agnes smith

Subject:              Agnes Smith      (b 1863 – d 1889)

Researchers:     Pauline Sieler and Mike Brock

Short, troubled life for Guildford girl

Agnes Smith was born in Guildford in 1863, one of her mother Charlotte’s three illegitimate daughters.  Life did not become much easier for Agnes despite her 40-year-old mother marrying seven years later – by 1881, the family were inmates of three different institutions.  Agnes was admitted to Brookwood Asylum in 1887, where she passed away, aged just 25.  

Agnes was born on 10th May 1863, the second illegitimate daughter of 33-year-old dressmaker Charlotte Smith, at Stoke Road, Guildford, where single mother Charlotte lived with her parents 1, 2, 3, 4.

Charlotte’s first daughter, Alice Moseley Smith, had been the subject of a court case in March 1861 at which Charlotte accused George James Moseley, someone she had known for a number of years, of overpowering her with a handkerchief soaked in chloroform before he ‘took liberties with me’ outside the family home in Stoke Road, resulting in the birth of Alice in February 1861 5. George, while admitting that he had known Charlotte ‘slightly’ for about nine years, denied the accusations, saying that he had ‘not had any communication with her for two years and a half’.  The Mayor, presiding over the Guildford County Bench, ruled that the ‘evidence was very conflicting’ and threw out Charlotte’s claim.  As for Alice, she died in October 1861 aged eight months from ‘debility’ and ‘chicken pock’ 6.

No court case has been traced following Agnes’s birth. Sometime after this the Smiths, including Charlotte and her daughter, moved about 5 miles (8km) away to Pirbright, where Charlotte gave birth to a third illegitimate daughter, in June 1869, Charlotte Emma 7. 

Within two months, the County Bench became involved again as Army pensioner Isaac Edwards was named by Charlotte as the child’s father 8 ,9. Charlotte told the Bench that she had known Isaac for two years and had seen him almost every day since.  However, while Isaac admitted that he had been ‘intimate’ with Charlotte about 18 months earlier, he had then ended the relationship with her upon discovering she had had two children and that she was ‘of light character’ and ‘not a suitable person for his wife’. With insufficient other evidence, the Bench decided Isaac should contribute just one shilling (£0.05) per week to Charlotte for her child’s upkeep.

Agnes’ mother marries

After this small success, Agnes’ mother Charlotte married 62-year-old widower James Giles in Pirbright in January 1871 10, 11.  The Census, just a few weeks later, showed Charlotte, 41, still a dressmaker, living in Pirbright with her husband James, a gardener, and her daughters, 7-year-old Agnes and Charlotte Emma, 1 12.

Almost exactly nine months later, Charlotte gave birth to James Joseph Benjamin (later known as Joseph), followed by Harriett Caroline in January 1873 13, 14.

Agnes’s life, now coming up to her 10th birthday, would appear to have become more stable, living with her mother, stepfather and four half-siblings. 

The 1881 Census told a somewhat different story, though, with the six family members living in three different institutions.  Agnes was in the Guildford Union Workhouse, noted as a 16-year-old (actually nearly 18) domestic servant, while her mother and stepfather were inmates of the Farnham Union Workhouse 15, 16.  Agnes’s half-siblings – 10-year-old Charlotte, Joseph (8) and Harriett (7) – were ‘scholar’ inmates of the Farnham, Hartley and Wintney Pauper School in Crondall 17. 

There are no records available to show when, why and how long Agnes and her family were in different workhouses.

Brookwood

By 1887, Agnes and her parents were out of their respective workhouses and living in Upper Hale, Farnham.  However, on 25th April that year, 24-year-old Agnes was taken from home to the Brookwood Asylum 18.  Her admission record stated that she was ‘suffering from mania, being violent and subject to outbursts of compulsive excitement… emotional and lachrymose’.  It went on to say that a neighbour had seen Agnes ‘attempt to throttle her mother’ and on another occasion ‘threaten to kill all those around her with a handbill’.  For the past eight months Agnes was ‘not able to do any work, probably was never very strong mentally’. The report concluded saying that Agnes’s health was ‘fair’ but that she had a ‘peculiar conformation of head’, which perhaps indicated a genetic condition.

Agnes did settle down for a time in Brookwood, beginning to ‘employ herself in domestic duties’ but remained at times ‘impulsive and subject to outbursts of excitement’.  Her condition did not improve, and after a bout of pneumonia, she passed away in the Asylum on 13th March 1889, aged 25, from pneumonia and ‘organic disease of the brain’.  Agnes was buried six days later in Brookwood Cemetery 19.

December 2020, updated December 2025
Edited by Mike Brock

We’d love to hear from you if you are a relative of Agnes Smith.  Please contact us by email at spikelives@charlotteville.co.uk

Spike Lives is a Heritage project that chronicles the lives of inmates, staff and the Board of Guardians of the Guildford Union Workhouse at the time of the 1881 Census.  The Spike Heritage Museum in Guildford offers guided tours which present a unique opportunity to discover what life was like in the Casual/Vagrant ward of a Workhouse. More information can be found here 

Sources and References

A complete list of references is below, with names as spelled in original documents. Original Surrey parish records, newspapers, and Brookwood Hospital Case Books are available at the Surrey History Centre, Woking. Digitised records were sourced through Ancestry.co.uk unless otherwise noted. Newspaper articles were sourced through British Newspaper Archive/FindMyPast.co.uk.

  1. Alice Moseley Smith 12 Feb 1861 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; Volume 2a; Page 58. Digital copy from General Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  2. Agnes Smith 10 May 1863 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; Volume 2a; Page 57. Digital copy from General Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  3. Charlotte Smith 2 May 1830 Baptism London Metropolitan Archives; London Church of England Parish Registers; Putney, St Mary; ref P95/MRY1/371
  4. Joseph, Jemima, Charlotte, Alice Moseley Smith 1861 Census for Stoke Rd, Stoke Next Guildford, Guildford, Surrey; class RG9; piece 427; folio 31; page 12
  5. An Indelicate Investigation Smith v Moseley 23 Mar 1861 West Surrey Times; pages 2 & 3
  6. Alice Moseley Smith 7 Oct 1861 England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index; Guildford, Surrey; Volume 2a; Page 31. Digital copy from General Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  7. Charlotte Emma Smith 27 Jun 1869 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; Volume 2a; Page 49. Digital copy from General Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  8. Illegitimacy at Pirbright 25 Sep 1869 Surrey Advertiser; page 8
  9. Driver Isaac Edwards 1863 Army discharge, injury to left ankle The National Archives, Kew, London; Royal Hospital Chelsea; Soldiers Service Documents; ref WO97
  10. Charlotte Smith & James Giles 28 Jan 1871 marriage Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England, Parish Registers; Pirbright, St Michael and All Angels; ref PI/2/2/3
  11. James Giles 23 Nov 1818 baptism, 10 Nov 1818 birth Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England, Parish Registers; Pyrford, St Nicholas with Wisley; ref Pyr/2/1
  12. James, Charlotte Giles; Agnes, Charlotte Emma Smith 1871 Census for ‘Part of Potteries’, Lower Mill, Pirbright; Surrey; class RG10; piece 808; folio 72; page 5
  13. James Joseph Benjamin Giles Oct-Nov-Dec 1871 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; Volume 2a; Page 50.
    James JB Giles 19 Oct 1871 birth 1939 Register for 14 Thorpe Lane, Saddleworth, Yorkshire; class RG101; enumeration district KOKE; sub district 494/1
  14. Harriett Caroline Giles 4 Jan 1873 England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; Volume 2a; Page 53. Digital copy from General Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  15. Agnes Smith 1881 Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Union Lane, Stoke Next Guildford, Guildford, Surrey; class RG11; piece 778; folio 94; page 9
  16. James, Charlotte Giles 1881 Census return for Farnham Union Workhouse, Hale Lane, Farnham, Surrey; class RG11; piece 788; folio 29; page 6
  17. Charlotte E, Joseph J, Harriott C Giles 1881 Census return for Farnham and Hartley Wintney District School, Crondall, Hampshire, Surrey; class RG11; piece 1250; folio 7; page 7
  18. Agnes Smith 25 Apr 1887 Surrey History Centre, Woking; Mental Health Admissions; Brookwood Asylum, Woking; register 5; admission no 5842; ref 3043/5/1/1/5
    Agnes Smith Brookood Hospital, Woking; Female Case Books; ref 3043/5/9/2/18. Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking
  19. Agnes Smith 19 Mar 1889 burial Brookwood Cemetery, Woking deceasedonline.com